
The video below shows the performance of one of the Sea Around Us most useful tools: the Mapped Data. By moving the lever from left to right, users can see how global fishing activity has expanded from 1950 to 2019.
Category: Contact
Real MPA or paper park? Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park

Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park. Image by UNESCO, Wikimedia Commons.
World Oceans Day (WOD), the initiative proposed in 1992 by Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and officially recognized by the UN in 2008, aims to catalyze collective action for a healthy ocean and a stable climate.
Some of the yearly campaigns thousands of organizations run, inspired by this goal, are guided by the annual action theme that NGO The Ocean Project proposes for WOD. The Ocean Project, together with the World Ocean Network, led efforts to get the UN to recognize June 8th as World Oceans Day.
Real MPA or Paper Park? French Southern and Antarctic Lands

The Marion Dufresne off the “port” of Crozet. East Island in the background. Photo by Dimitri Damasceno, Wikimedia Commons.
World Oceans Day (WOD), the initiative proposed in 1992 by Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and officially recognized by the UN in 2008, aims to catalyze collective action for a healthy ocean and a stable climate.
Efforts to rebuild Hong Kong oyster reefs now on film
Pearls, aphrodisiac concoctions, and Asian sauces. When we, ‘moderns,’ think about oysters, we rarely connect them to the substrate of a city.
Hong Kong and its Pearl River Delta area, as it turns out, have been built both structurally and socio-culturally atop what used to be extensive oyster reefs. However, these ecosystems have been decimated by dredging for lime and mega-city development.
World Fisheries Day 2025: Using Sea Around Us data to support a Blu(er) Economy

Fisherman casting net at sunset in Mandalay. Photo by Pyae Phyo Aung, Pexels.
Official statistics from most coastal countries only account for a fraction of what their fisheries catch, the Sea Around Us data and analyses have demonstrated.
As we observe World Fisheries Day 2025, which aims to highlight the importance of promoting sustainable fish stocks and the rights of small-scale fishing communities, it is crucial to remember that without comprehensive data, managing sustainable fisheries is akin to flying blind.